


Baby, It's Cold Outside

by marsmaywander



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Hurt Tony Stark, Insomnia, Insomniac Tony Stark, Loss, M/M, POV Bucky Barnes, Protective Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Winteriron Holiday Exchange, i only write happy endings, mention of canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22021327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marsmaywander/pseuds/marsmaywander
Summary: It’s winter break and the campus is dead. Tony looks so lonely, and all Bucky wants to do is invite him to join Bucky and his friends for dinner.(for the winteriron holiday exchange)
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Comments: 34
Kudos: 384
Collections: 2019 WinterIron_Holiday_Exchange





	Baby, It's Cold Outside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avengersincamphalfbloodstardis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avengersincamphalfbloodstardis/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy! Big thanks to feignedsobriquet and orbingarrow for last-minute beta reading.

“This place is a freakin’ ghost town. Did everyone else go home for the holidays?” Clint asked. He was snacking on popcorn and staring out at the campus main lawn. An untouched layer of snow covered the ground, nearly glowing in what little light there was at this time of night. _Jingle-Bell Rock_ quietly played in the background, coming from a speaker propped up on top of the microwave.

“Everyone but us and the Stark kid,” Natasha agreed from her position sitting upside-down on the couch.

“What? No,” Bucky argued, sitting up. “Erskine Hall’s been dark all week.”

Natasha lazily spun a pencil between her fingers, “Stalker.” She threw the pencil at the ceiling, sticking it into the tile point-first. “He has been living in the engineering labs.”

“Guy’s a workaholic. I never would’ve guessed,” Clint mumbled around his mouthful of food. “I’m surprised he ever stops partying enough to get anything done.”

“It must help that he is smart enough to get all his schoolwork done without having to put in much of an effort,” Natasha added.

Bucky squirmed uncomfortably. “Well, but what about—”

Suddenly the lights flickered, the stereo playing holiday music warbling eerily.

“That was odd,” Clint said.

Then the power cut out completely.

“Aw, lights.”

“I will get the candles,” Natasha offered, rolling to her feet.

\---

“So, guess who was responsible for our little candle-lit dinner last night?” Clint asked, sliding into a cafeteria chair.

“Stark?” Natasha swatted his hand as he tried to steal a french fry.

“Ouch. And no fair. You and your spy network.”

“It was not too hard to piece together,” Natasha said, nodding to the corner of the room. “He has been there all day.”

Bucky looked over to see Tony snoring away in a dark corner of the cafeteria. He was right next to the kitchen. How he could sleep through the clanging of pots and pans was beyond Bucky.

“Well, I heard from Professor Coulson that Dean Fury banned him from working alone in the lab,” Clint continued. “Apparently the power surge he caused knocked out power to the entire North half of the campus. And since he’s the only brain that stuck around for break...”

The cafeteria staff began to sweep the floors, preparing to close up for the night. Bucky, Clint, and Natasha began to gather their trash, piling everything onto the cafeteria trays and reorganizing the napkins and condiments.

“I’m gonna invite him to our place tomorrow for dinner. Probably sucks to be alone on campus.” Bucky said, standing up and grabbing his tray.

“Go and get him, loverboy,” Natasha drawled, shoving her plate and cup onto Clint’s tray. Bucky rolled his eyes.

From up close, Tony looked all the worse for wear. He had a walking boot covering his foot, crutches leaning against a nearby wall, and enough bandaged small cuts to rival Clint on a bad day. There was a nearly-untouched stew in front of him that smelled strongly of paprika.

Bucky reached out to lightly tap on Tony’s shoulder. “Hey, Doll, cafeteria’s closing soon, and—”

Tony jerked awake. He flailed back, falling out of the chair. Tony stared at Bucky for a moment, and the dark circles under his eyes only helped to accentuate their light brown color. Bucky noticed dried tear tracks on Tony’s face and his heart shattered for him. He crouched down to offer a hand.

The frozen moment only lasted for a second before Tony was ungracefully scrambling up, grabbing for his crutches, and limping away. It would have been beyond simple for Bucky to catch up to Tony, but he stayed on the floor, staring.

“Good job, genius,” he muttered to himself.

\---

“I’m gonna try again,” Bucky said out of nowhere.

“Second time’s the charm?” Clint asked. He was lying facedown on the floor and staying very still as Natasha tried to build a Jenga tower between his shoulder blades. “Are you sure he’s gonna want to hang out with little ol’ us anyway? The parties he spends his time at are _legend_. Hard to go from champagne wishes and caviar dreams to PBR and cheetos.”

“Stop being so judgy,” Natasha poked Clint in the forehead with a Jenga brick.

“And try less resting-murderface this time,” Natasha offered. “I hear he has been camping out in the library these days.”

The Jenga tower collapsed with a half-suppressed sneeze from Clint.

\---

Just as Natasha predicted, Bucky found Tony in the library, hidden away under one of the isolation study desks in the basement level. The table itself was positively covered in engineering books and hand-drawn blueprints annotated in a neat and tiny print. Tony seemed to be napping restfully, and Bucky was loath to induce a second panic attack exit in two days.

Grabbing a loose sheet of blank paper and a pencil, Bucky slowly wrote a short note to Tony:

> “ _Hey Tony! Sorry for startling you yesterday. Can I make it up to you? Come have dinner with me and the other holiday misfit toys tomorrow. We’re on the second floor of Carter Hall and dinner starts at seven-ish. -Bucky_ ”

After staring at the note for what felt like forever, Bucky folded it up neatly and tucked it under the paper coffee cup that sat on the table.

\---

“He’s not coming,” Bucky moaned, curled up in the corner of the sofa and burrito’d in three throw blankets.

“Dude, it’s not even six-thirty yet. Chill.” Clint stirred a large sauce pot on the stove. It was his turn to cook, so the night's menu was a value 6-pack of ramen noodles, some garlic bread, and a somewhat respectable garden salad (added only after Natasha threatened to give her lecture on scurvy again).

Natasha said nothing from her perch on the opposite side of the sofa, turning another page of _War and Peace_.

A purple rubber band tumbled across the exposed tuft of Bucky’s hair, rolling to a stop on his shoulder and joining a cluster of multicolored bands.

“Fourteen!” Clint exclaimed.

“Stop poking at Bucky and finish dinner,” Natasha said without looking up.

“I’m talented — I can multitask. You sure Stark’s gonna be okay eating our _commoner_ food?”

No one answered him because just then, there was a quiet tapping at the door. Bucky made a squeaking noise, flailed from his nest, and fell to the floor with a loud thump. He began to furiously wiggle to free himself as Natasha made her way to the door.

“Oh! Hi — it’s Natasha, right?”

“Da. I am glad you made it over here,” she helped him maneuver through the doorway. Bucky rolled over on the floor as his foot got caught in yet another twist in the fabric. He was nearly free.

“Oh, here!” Tony fumbled with his crutches to hand over a white box, “Ah, I don’t know if you guys have had those before. They’re —”

“Rugelach? How lovely! Did you hear that, Bucky? Tony brought rugelach.”

By the time Bucky made it to the door, pointedly ignoring the snickering coming from the kitchen, his face was flushed and he was trying desperately to flatten his hair.

“Are you okay?” Tony asked, a concerned frown furrowing his brow.

“He is fine,” Natasha took pity on Bucky and guided the conversation away from his extreme awkwardness. “Are these apricot? Come, have a seat on the couch.”

Tony was seated with a cushion supporting his back and a well-loved afghan covering his lap before he knew what happened. His crutches were helpfully tucked away behind the couch.

“They… uh… they’re apricot-walnut.”

“Marry me!” came a voice from the kitchen

Tony boggled.

“We are a bunch of sweet-toothed monsters; sugar does not last long here. Again, thank you. Dinner should be done soon. I will go check.”

“Do you need help with anything?” Tony asked earnestly.

“ _You’re so precious_ ,” Natasha muttered in Russian as she left the room. Bucky coughed and decided to ignore her.

“I think they’ve got it under control,” Bucky settled heavily on the couch, leaving a small personal space bubble between them, “And really, thank you for the rugelach - I don’t know the last time I got to have some.”

“It used to be a family tradition. Every year, we’d—" he cut himself off and took a deep breath. "But, uh, these ones were just from the bakery down the road.” Tony picked at his nails.

“I’m sure they taste great.”

Tony smiled wearily up at Bucky.

“Soup’s on!” Clint chimed from the kitchen.

“I hope you like ramen,” Bucky said with a grin.

\---

Dinner went off without a hitch. Tony was surprisingly polite and reserved. Far from turning up his nose at their budget meal, Tony went up for seconds, proclaiming that the flavor was his favorite. His roommate had apparently banned him from buying any more after coming back from break to find their shared cupboard filled with nothing but ramen noodles. The rugelach was likewise quickly devoured by all.

Tony was giving a thoughtful look to the remaining pastry crumbs when Bucky’s cell phone buzzed.

“Oh, damn,” Bucky held up the phone, “I forgot to finish my art history final paper. The professor’s giving me an extension, but I have to get it done by tonight. Nat, can I borrow your laptop? I need to do some speed-run wiki-surfing.”

“Da, of course. It is on the counter.”

“What’s your paper on?” Tony asked hesitantly, blinking up at Bucky.

“Some Titan guy?”

“Titian? He’s, uh, got some good pieces, even if some are a bit overhyped.”

Bucky peered up at him from where he was plugging in the laptop cable.

“Oh, uh. My mom may have had a couple of his pieces? I can appreciate them now, but they definitely weren’t nursery-appropriate,” He laughed nervously. “I can give you some tips... if you want? His style changed a lot over the years and wiki may just send you down a rabbit hole.”

“Yes! I mean, I’d be very grateful. I didn’t know you liked art.”

“I don’t,” Tony smiled bemusedly. “Oh, don’t get me wrong — some of it’s nice to look at — but I mostly know this stuff because there’s not much else to talk about when you’re eight and forced to attend galas held at various museums. My suffering is your good fortune.”

Neither noticed Clint and Natasha making a smooth exit from the kitchen.

\---

By the time Bucky was finished (just under the wire! It wasn’t pretty but it was _done_ ), it was approaching midnight. Time flew with Tony’s art history recaps being interspersed with surprisingly hilarious stories of gala mishaps.

“Oh, gosh. It’s so late! I should probably head out.” Tony stretched backwards and snagged a few fingers around his crutches, scrambling to his feet.

Bucky suspected Tony would just be heading to yet another lonely night of sleeping at the library, and his heart ached.

“You are not thinking of leaving, are you?” Natasha asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway.

“Uh, yeah? It’s been really fun, sincerely,” he glanced at Bucky, “but I should get out of your hair now.”

“You are going nowhere. I insist. The snow has come down very fast while you two were working. Also the lights in this area of campus are not reliable. We do not want you to break other ankle, no?”

Tony hobbled over to the kitchen window and looked out, frowning.

“You can stay in Steve’s room,” Bucky offered, after a sharp nudge from Natasha. “He’s gone for the break, and I know he won’t mind.”

“If you’re sure?” Tony asked

“Like Nat said — we insist. I’ll even loan you some pajamas.” Bucky blushed when his brain caught up with his offer.

“Oh, well. Thank you. I appreciate not having to navigate the snow in crutches.”

“Let us set up the linens. It is late and morning will come soon.” Natasha said, dragging Bucky with her.

\---

Bucky woke up at 2am with a mouth that resembled the Sahara. As he rolled out of bed, he noticed a flickering band of light coming from under the door.

When he ventured out of his room, he spotted the source of the dim light. Tony was curled up on the couch, bundled in Natasha’s afghan and watching muted infomercials on their ancient television.

Bucky got himself a glass of water before joining Tony on the couch.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Bucky asked.

“Mmm,” Tony hummed noncommittally.

“Stay put, I’ll be right back,” Bucky said, setting down his glass and heading back to the kitchen.

A few microwave beeps later, Bucky returned with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

“It’s just from mix, but I added some cinnamon, and some corn starch to thicken it out.”

Tony was quiet as he sipped, but Bucky soon noticed his hands shaking.

“Hey, are you okay?” Bucky asked, placing a hand on Tony’s shoulder. He was trembling.

When Tony looked up, his eyes were noticeably red. “Sorry. I’m a mess. It’s just. Ana puts... _used to_ put cinnamon in her cocoa, and it’s just hitting me all over again. I hate December.”

Bucky stayed quiet, rubbing slow circles into Tony’s shoulder.

“It was just so sudden,” the flickering lights from the TV lit up Tony’s face as he stared off into space. “No... that’s a lie. I saw it coming, but I didn’t want to. And she was so good at pretending; I wanted to believe her. It’s just so damn _easy_ to believe a pretty lie.”

Bucky carefully relocated Tony’s mug, and pulled him into a hug.

“How long’s it been?”

“Eight days, thirteen hours, and twenty-two minutes. I’m just so _tired_.” Tony rested his head on Bucky’s shoulder.

“Just let it all out,” Bucky gently squeezed Tony and rocked him from side to side.

\---

Bucky and Tony talked into the early hours of the morning, Tony eventually crying himself out and hiccuping his way to sharing some happier memories of the Jarvises.

“Thanks for staying up with me,” Tony said. “Chronic insomnia sneaks up on me at the worst times. You’ve been more than kind.”

“Don’t mention it, really. I don’t mind at all.”

“I think this evening has been the most human interaction I’ve had in a week.”

“Well, happy to provide.” Bucky started to fold up Nat’s afghan, “Think you could try getting some more sleep now? I promise it’ll help.”

“Worth a shot. Um. Help me to my borrowed room? I kinda hobbled out here, and it was less than graceful.”

“Of course,” Bucky offered his arm and helped Tony off the couch.

They silently made their way down the hall. Bucky almost stumbled when Tony halted in place without warning.

“What’s wr— _oh_. Damn,” Bucky blushed. “You— You can ignore that. My roommates think they’re hilarious.”

Above the door to Tony’s borrowed room was a taped piece of notebook paper. On the paper was a crude drawing of a leafy branch, with an arrow pointing to it labeled “MISTLETOE” in large blocky letters, in case there was any confusion.

Tony just smiled warmly, hugged Bucky tight, and pecked him lightly on the lips before slipping inside the room.

Bucky floated all the way back to his bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr! marsmaywander.tumblr.com
> 
> And please hit that kudos button and tell me what you thought in a comment - it really makes my day :D


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